I can't wait till k5 comes back. Sure, with all the trolls and idiotic comments, there's still never been anything remotely resembling this piece of shit posted to the queue or thrown up in a diary, let alone on the front page. Satire or not, it was ignorant bullshit. The really sad thing is that some people are actually retarded enough to buy into it. But enough about that.

Monday I had a bit of a setback. I spent my lunch break lifting upper and middle back. Later that night I went climbing, and while working a problem I'd climbed a dozen times before my foot cut, and I fell. I landed lightly on my feet, on the crash pad, but something in my right shoulder twinged and caused a muscle to spasm. Now, I'm used to injuries, and quite accustomed to pain, but this hurt. I thought maybe I'd pinched a nerve or slipped a disc some how. I went and saw a friend of mine that's a nursing major, just to make sure I hadn't done anything serious. That, and she's cute, and single, and we're kinda sorta dating now. She poked and prodded and moved my arm and neck around, putting me in a great deal of pain, but ultimately declared me unbroken, merely slightly bent. She told me to go to a doctor, I grumbled about this, but ultimately conceded. Besides, it'd be a good way to get off work for a while. So I went home and spent about 45 mintues in the shower, letting the hot water work over my neck and back. That more or less got me back full range of motion in my right arm. My neck was still killing me. So i spent the entire night laying in bed, trying not to move and never really getting to sleep because every twitch sent waves of pain down my neck and back. Joyous.

Tuesday came, and I showered and shuffled off to work to sit through a meeting. I told my boss I was taking the day off to get checked out, and he shuffled my wonderful workload onto someone else for the day (meaning none of it got anywhere near done). I checked my healthcare provider and found a doctor in my plan, made an appointment, and left work. Driving without the ability to turn one's neck is no fun. So I went, filled out the forms (in triplicate, why in bloody hell can't these people use carbon paper, or *gasp* a photocopier?), and waited. All told, I waited roughly 2 hours until I finally saw a medical professional. From what I understand, this is about the norm. He poked and proded and moved my head, neck, and arm around in various ways, and put me in a buttload of pain. Ultimately he declared I had moderate damage to the soft tissue of the levator scapulae. This is a little muscle that connects the neck to the top of the scapula (shoulder blade), and sits underneath the trapezius. When you have a sharp pain in your neck that radiates to your shoulder and middle back, this is the reason why. So he showed me some stretches to do in the shower, told me to vary ice and heat for 15 minutes each, for an hour each day, and sent me on my way. I went home and hopped back in the shower for a while to try and work the muscle somewhat loose. After a full day of heat/ice/etc., it started to feel better, and I actually managed to get about 5 hours of sleep.

Wednesday came, and I was feeling much better for having slept. Typical day from then on out, plus some pain.

And now I have to shuffle off to the lab and do more of the work that everyone else doesn't do.